Status-Q

My brother, Simon.

Some rather fine owls have taken up residence for the winter in one of my regular dog-walking spots. They're quite beautiful, and totally silent, unlike the pheasants that Tilly usually flushes out from the undergrowth!

I normally only see them in the evenings, when there isn't enough light for photos. This morning, though, this chap popped up and I had a camera with me.

I didn't have a very long lens, though, so even these are drastically cropped from the originals. Sometimes, a significant number of megapixels does make a difference!

There are at least three owls here - Short-eared owls, I think. I've seen three of them at once before, though other passers-by have told me they think there are five or more. Obviously a sociable set.

What a scary concept!

Can you work out how I did it?

From yesterday’s walk at Wandlebury.

I met this fellow on a walk today. Isn’t he magnificent?

He seemed very placid, but I was grateful that there was a fence between us, unlike the time when I met one of his cousins a few years back.

I’m not quite sure if I’m allowed to have this. But we could have a fun chasing game if you wanted to take it away from me….

A rainy night at Gog Magog Hills farm shop – one of my favourite local haunts.

In a box in the loft I found my old Olympus OM30, which I purchased a little over a quarter of a century ago: an OK, but never great, camera. With it, however, were a couple of Olympus OM-series Zuiko lenses, which were pretty good for the price. And I was delighted to find that you can get adapters to connect them to a micro-4/3 body like my Panasonic Lumix GH2. You can buy the adapter from Olympus for £143 or from Fotodiox for £29. I chose the latter.

My first few experiments with the combination are here.

Rose and crime writer Jim Kelly ended up doing an impromptu discussion of their writing habits at Cambridge Library today.

Had a delightful if decidedly foggy walk on and around the Torpel Way near Peterborough at the weekend.

Very pretty villages round here. Thought this was a rather impressive house, in Ufford:

More pictures on Flickr. Pleasing 8-mile route on Everytrail.